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Tomb Raider has crossed into profitability

Tomb Raider gained profitability by the end of last year, according to executive producer Scot Amos.

Tomb Raider initially fell short of expectations, as Square Enix expected it to sell a third more out of the gate. It did eventually recoup, though, as executive producer Scot Amos says the game has now turned profitable.

"By the end of last year, Tomb Raider is in the black," Amos told Eurogamer. "We've crossed the line of profitability for the last-gen and PC versions." That means that whatever cost was put into the next-gen Definitive Editions, Square will be starting from profitability instead of counting on it to make up the difference.

On the subject of the Definitive Editions, though, he claimed that this wasn't an effort from Square Enix to recoup losses. "The dev team wanted to do the port," he said. "Square didn't approach us saying to do XYZ, at the end of the game the dev team said 'there's all these things that we want to do', but we'd pushed those machines to the limit at the time. This was in the bag and on the way even before anything happened with sales expectations or where things were at. We were having this conversation at the end of 2012 when we first heard details and rumors of next-gen consoles."

Amos also said that Square Enix has "clearly invested in us," citing both the sequel and Definitive Edition. "They've always been behind us, regardless of maybe what was said or how it was said in the press, and certainly at the end of the year we've actually gone over expectations because we've managed to get profitability back. We're very happy to say that from a partnership internally, we're committed to it totally. Square Enix talks about it as a key franchise, so we're very happy with where we're at."

Square had expected 5-6 million units in just four weeks, which made its actual figure of 3.4 million a disappointment.

Steve Watts

Editor-In-Chief

Steve Watts' youthful memories are are a blur of pixels, princesses, castles, and Mega Busters. After writing about games as a pastime for years, he got his first shot at a paid gig at 1UP. He's freelanced for several sites since then, and found a friendly home at Shacknews. His editorial duties include news, reviews, features, and lunatic ravings. He lives in the Baltimore-Washington area with his shockingly understanding wife.